Chris Wallace Says McAuliffe Was Dragged Down by Biden During Campaign: ‘Had to Carry Him Like a Weight Tied to His Ankle’
During Fox News’s election coverage on Tuesday night, Chris Wallace suggested that Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings have been a drag on Terry McAuliffe’s campaign.
Martha MacCallum asked Wallace about comments Biden made earlier in the day in which he suggested there’s no connection between his performance and how McAuliffe will fare in the race.
“I’ve not seen any evidence yet, whether or not I am doing well or poorly, whether or not I’ve got my agenda pass or not, is gonna have any real impact winning or losing,” said Biden. “Even if we had passed my agenda, I wouldn’t claim we won because Biden’s agenda passed.”
McCallum asked Wallace for his response, and he replied,
There have been some White House operatives who’ve putting out the word all day. “This is not a referendum on Joe Biden,” which is an odd thing to do when your guy, Terry McAuliffe, has chance of winning it. It almost seems like they’ve been pre-butting the idea that, “don’t blame us if McAuliffe loses.” But there’s no question that Joe Biden has had an impact on this race, his sharp decline in the polls. He’s at about 42, 43% support in Virginia. If he were at 52 or 53%, I think that McAuliffe would have a much better chance of winning tonight, and frankly if he had passed more of his agenda, for instance, if they had taken the win back in September or August on the infrastructure bill, and they’d that big Covid relief bill in the early part of the year. And then a bipartisan infrastructure bill in August, that would have changed the narrative a lot from the failures in Afghanistan, the failures with inflation, the problems at the border.
Last week, Biden campaigned at a rally and taunted opponent McAuliffe’s Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin for shying away from Trump despite receiving his endorsement.
“He won’t allow Donald Trump to campaign for him in this state,” said the president. “And he’s willing to pledge his loyalty to Trump in private, why not in public?”
Wallace concluded, “There just hasn’t been a positive Biden and Democratic agenda message that’s gone out there. So McAuliffe, instead of having an asset in Joe Biden and his agenda, has, I think, kind of had to carry him like a weight tied to his ankle.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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